This week the Commercial Court handed down judgment in
Tonicstar Limited v (1) Allianz Insurance PLC; (2)
Sirius International Insurance Corporation ( PUBL) (London Branch)
[2017] EWHC 2753, a matter where the question was
whether a barrister was a person "with not less than 10
years' experience of insurance or reinsurance" for
the purposes of a standard form arbitration clause in a reinsurance
contract.
It was argued that the clause required experience in the
business of insurance or reinsurance itself, and not
experience of insurance or reinsurance law.
The Judge considered himself bound by the decision of Mr Justice
Morison in Company X v Company Y, an unreported decision
of July 2000, having found that it was not obviously wrong.
He indicated however, that unless he had been so bound, he may well
have decided that the ordinary and natural construction of the
phrase did not limit the fields in which experience of insurance or
reinsurance could be acquired.
